Don’t Defy The Will

Of The People

(The following letter to the Board of Education has been received for publication.)

Dear Chairman Hart and Members of the Newtown Board of Education:

Very soon you will be making a decision regarding the future transportation carriers of our school children. It is seldom that a single issue such as this has generated such intense and apparently one-sided feelings on the part of the public. The owner-operators currently in place have been performing this service for eight decades for the town with generally good performance and great admiration and acceptance by the parents of our school children and others.

School officials, in a desire to make “structural changes” resulting in economic benefit, have decided, once again, to seriously consider having an “outside” commercial firm provide the subject transportation activities. This has resulted in a huge, vocal, and continuing dissatisfaction among taxpayers, former and current town officials, parents, letter writers to The Newtown Bee, political party town committees, speakers at school board meetings, The Newtown Bee editorials, and many others. It appears that our school administration leaders have their hearts set on opposing the will of the people with the potential endorsement of most of our elected board members who also seem to be complicit in the movement. As a former board member, I respectfully urge you to not go down this road.

We all want good value returned to us for our tax dollars. That is a given. The owner-operators must be competitive in a totality of price, service, risk, local involvement, continuity of service, safety, financial benefit to the town in matters other than direct pricing, etc. It is not just a “cost” analysis of a bid that determines who is best for the town. The BOE has been criticized lately for being “compliant” to the school administration and also for, as an editorial in The Bee dated June 17, 2011, described, risking “a serious crisis of public confidence.” The board must generate savings and cost reductions because this is necessary to be certain that our monies are being spent wisely and efficiently. They should be finding ways to enable our O-Os to be more efficient and cost effective — not ways to do away with a proven and admired transportation system.

The board, being a “creature of the state,” must comply with the letter and the spirit of the Connecticut General Statutes and in particular Title 10. Continuing with the owner-operators is not in conflict with any statutory requirement. Mr Chairman, you and the board will make an irreversible error by not continuing with our owner-operators. That error can only be the result of a board which defies the will of the people and common sense.

Respectfully,

Paul J. Mangiafico

15 Kent Road, Newtown                                              August 15, 2011